Kazakhstan’s AIBA World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Kayrat Yeraliyev is the number one seed at Bantamweight in Bangkok, and opened his tournament with a close victory over Philippines’ Incheon 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Mario Fernandez.

The Kazakh boxer began their highly entertaining bout with more intent and pressure, as his Filipino rival tried to use his amazing footwork to keep the distance.

Fernandez’s power punches looked impressive in round two, before Yeraliyev returned to his best form in the third frame as he sealed a hard fought triumph.

Kyrgyzstan’s Rakhmankul Avatov has won three international tournaments this year, but was surprisingly defeated on Day 5 by Philippines’ Southeast Asian Games silver medallist Rogen Ladon at Light Flyweight.

The Round-Up

Uzbekistan’s Summer Universiade winner Hasanboy Dusmatov was ranked second last season at Light Flyweight in WSB, and caused Kazakhstan’s first loss in the event when he defeated Temirtas Zhusupov in a great bout.

“It is always hard to start in such a big competition as the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships, and it does not matter who is your opponent is. I had to wait five days until my opening bout, so I was a bit nervous today. My rival was not an easy one, but I think I won all of the rounds, and my best round was the final one when I found my rhythm,” said Shiva Thapa who eliminated Jordan’s Mohammad Al-Wadi at Bantamweight (56 kg).

Tomorrow’s program

The sixth and final day of the preliminaries will be held tomorrow, where 24 bouts are scheduled across the Flyweight (52 kg), Light Welterweight (64 kg) and Light Heavyweight (81 kg) weight divisions.